Published reports say they're expected to combine their services, allowing Facebook members to sign in to Skype using their Facebook Connect accounts. Users could then send text messages, voice chat and video chat with their Facebook friends from within Skype. A deal is expected to be announced within the next few weeks.

Yahoo's stock price is abysmal, employee morale is low, and top-level executives are fleeing. What's left? An Internet property slowly limping to its death and a mouthy CEO with no vision. Her days are numbered.

More disturbing than Bartz's incapacity to handle herself professionally is an apparent lack of vision for the company. Bartz and her recent hire chief product officer Blake Irving have had trouble articulating what Yahoo, as a brand, stands for, even when asked repeatedly.

AllThingsD's John Paczowki called Irving's response "the world's worst elevator pitch," and analysts agree that such a vague, amorphous definition just doesn't cut it

Earlier this week, The Wall Street Journal reported that members of Yahoo's board convened an emergency meeting at company headquarters to discuss management issues and how to deal with them. At this point, pundits are speculating the board could appoint a choice second-in-command that would take over for Bartz once her contract runs out in 18 months.

But by then, it may be too late reverse the course for Yahoo, its shareholders and the company's 13,000 employees, into becoming just another historical footnote in the growing list of fallen tech companies

"She's an idiot," says one large shareholder. "She swears at everybody, and is flip to everybody. She does that with employers, she does that with shareholders, and she does it to employees. That's not the way to win hearts and friends." Moreover, this shareholder says, Bartz simply doesn't have a handle on how to run an Internet company.